Group Narrative - Miss Georgiou

Group narrative

The purpose of a narrative is to have a clear explanation of the plot so they understand what is happening. The narrative is very important to a thriller as it sets the scene for the audience and tells the story of what is happening. It is very important in thrillers to make sure that the narrative is clear otherwise the audience will have a false understanding of what is occurring and loose interest. 

My idea

My individual narrative consists of a young blond girl who is alone in her house she recently moved in to. The house is old fashioned and has a creepy atmosphere as there is low key lighting and close up shots. She starts to hear doors slamming and other noises in her house, when she realizes something is wrong a creepy eery soundtrack starts to play, when she realizes she is not alone in the house a more upbeat faced paced music is introduced. When she is investigating the house, the masked killer appears behind her and she see's his reflection in the window and a non diagetic disturbing loud sound is played to shock the audience and grab their attention. By the end of the clip she wakes up in her bed and realizes it was a dream the soundtrack is more calm, so she goes back to sleep and there is a heartbeat sound building the suspense. When she is asleep there is a extreme close up of the killers face. The audience is left in suspense of a cliff hanger.   

Advantages of this idea: 

• The narrative is clear and easy to display to the audience
• Easy place to film without any disturbances
• Easy to re create the scene for more filming time
• Good place to film, as everyone in the group can easily get there
• different camera angles and sound used
• the audience will be able to relate to the scene well as its set in a house

Disadvantages of this idea:

• Simple, predictable scene for a thriller film
• parts of the plot may not grab the audiences attention 
• may be hard to add the effects in such as the doors slamming

Charley's idea

My idea for my narrative consists of a car crash taking place and a young girl being killed. A young, blond, female driver is the reason for this and is then haunted by the young girl she killed in the chase who is out to get revenge. The scene is vaguely shown but, we mostly see her getting haunted and the crash is the background story to this. She gets haunted in a series of events and we witness within the opening scene these occurring to her. For example: door's slamming, strong gusts of wind following this and objects unexpectedly falling off of shelves. The setting would be in a house to add to the realism of the event, and small glimpse of the girl will be shown to the audience but, not the victim (dramatic irony). When the girl is shown to the audience, creepy music is played that will then thus create an atmosphere and a suspense for the audience. 

Advantages of this idea: 
falls into the thriller genre and obtains many thriller conventions such as, the female victim, the un-expected killer, a murder being taken place and the conventional setting of night-time in a isolated area.

Disadvantages of this idea: 
The car crash, the death, and the chase for revenge are quite long winded and although, would be a good idea for a whole thriller sequence, perhaps is too much for a short snip-it of one. 

Guneet's idea

My individual narrative consists of an extremely vain girl who keeps looking at herself at every mirror or surface with a reflection once the eerie music comes in she realizes someone has been following her and eventually gets killed after sprinting through the retail shop floors from the psychotic killer.

Advantages of this idea:

The main character is conventional to the thriller genre and the use of music will add suspense and tension to it

Disadvantages of this idea:

It will be hard to film this without people getting in the way meaning, there will be a lot of disruptions taking place when filming

Overall idea

Our overall idea consists of a small group of people on their way to a party with the main character being a teenage blond girl. The train has a maximum of 15 people on and is in the middle of the day. There is a panning shot so the audience can be aware of the surroundings and the number of people in the train, there is also a mid shot of the girl and her group of friends so the audience can understand that she is not alone and be prepared for what is going to happen next. As the train goes through a dark tunnel the soundtrack changes from happy laughter and upbeat music to creepy sinister music with a heartbeat sound in the background. As the train comes out of the tunnel everyone in the train has disappeared and the girl is left alone, the time of day has changed as well to late evening as it is dark, this sets the scene for what is about to happen for the audience and there is a loud eerie sound as the train comes out of the tunnel. The girl starts to look around and pressing the 'open' button trying to open the doors but nothing happens, as she looks up she See's a masked man looking back at her and she falls back. The train door noise is exaggerated as the masked man now enters the train. As the masked killer goes to kill the young girl, she is transported back to when she is on the train before it goes in the tunnel with her friends and in the middle of the day, as the train pulls up to the next station the masked killer is standing in front of her at the next station and the clip ends. The audience is left in suspense and on a cliff hanger. This will grab their attention to find out what will happen and leave them wanting more.The car crash, the death, and the chase for revenge are quite long winded and although, would be a good idea for a whole thriller sequence, perhaps is too much for a short snip-it of one. 

Different narrative theories include theories from Vladimir Proop, a Russian critic, Tzvetan Todorov and Aristotle. Vladamir's idea was that the characters were the main part of the film which provide a structure for the audience which help them understand the narrative better. The main characters which are included in films are: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her farther. Tzvetan todorov's theory consists if a simplified narrative whilst also allowing a more complex interpretation with his theory of equilibrium or disequilibrium. A fictional environment begins with a state of equilibrium where everything is calm and normal and then a disruption happens to create a disequilibrium and then goes into a new equilibrium. Aristotle's idea consists of time, place and action and goes along the order of an incident happening, dramatic question, character goal, antagonist/protagonist, stakes, resolution and sympathy/empathy. Our group narrative follows the theory of Tzvetan Todorov as when the girl and her group of friends are on the train everything is normal which is the equilibrium, and then when she comes out of the tunnel and realises she is in danger that's when the disruption happens and gives the disequilibrium. Finally when she gets out of danger and realizes she is alright again, there is a new equilibrium as everything is normal and there is no disruption. By following a particular  narrative theory, it will allow us  to follow a  specific order and idea, this will hopefully help our narrative flow better and allow the audience to have a better understanding of what is happening and make  it more  conventional to a  thriller.